Our Moving Journey Journal : Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend celebrating with family and friends. We had a very packed weekend spending a lot of time outside enjoying the California sun. On Friday we were lucky enough to go to the Honda Center for an Anaheim Ducks vs Dallas Stars playoff hockey game #2. My boyfriend is a huge Dallas Stars fan, and this is the first time that they have made the playoffs in a long time, not like the Philadelphia Flyers that make it almost every year :) It just so happened that they are playing against Anaheim in the first round so we knew we had to get tickets. Although we were sitting in the nosebleed seats and the Stars lost, it was honestly one of the most fun games I had ever been to. Duck fans have a lot of energy and are actually really nice to other fans. The stadium is also really nice with hundreds palm trees surrounding the parking lot. Parking was $25 across the street at the JT Schmidt restaurant and fairly easy to get out of the parking lot after the game. I'm glad we were able to experience this together and had a great night in Anaheim.

The Honda Center

The other orange and black team

Game time

First period

Sold out game 2

On Saturday we decided to go to the Santa Monica pier in Santa Monica outside of LA. The drive from Irvine to Santa Monica honestly sucked. We were stuck in traffic for what seemed like hours crawling along the freeway. Once we finally arrived we decided to just valet our car so we would't have to worry about fighting for a parking spot. Valet parking was $10 for the first hour and $2 every 20 minutes after. The pier has rides, games, restaurants, and street entertainers. It reminded me of when I was a child going to Wildwood at the Jersey shore with my family. After the hours we spent in traffic we made a straight line for Mariasols Mexican restaurant to enjoy an alcoholic beverage. We sat at the bar at Mariasols while enjoying our margaritas, chips, and salsa since we were not going to wait for a table. The drinks are on the expensive side, and they even have a $85 patron margarita. After we finished our drinks we wanted to go ride the roller coaster but the line to buy tickets and ride the rides was over an hour wait. We had enough of the traffic and waiting so we decided just to go home. The pier is a landmark in Souther California, but I honestly don't think I would go back. Too crowded, too much traffic, and too expensive. Checked it off the bucket list and moved on to the next thing.

Way to over crowded

Beach and full parking lot

Rides on the pier

Beautiful California day

Our margaritas at the bar

Live music

Direct view to the ocean from the bar

Santa Monica, CA

Roller coaster that we didn't get to ride

The pier entrance

On Sunday we typically like to do something physically active so we decided to go on a hike at Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach. I typed in 8471 N Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA 92651 into my GPS and entered the park at the Pelican Point entrance. Parking is $15 for the day which allows you to park from 6AM- sunset. We parked in lot 1 and walked along the boardwalk to the beach entrance. You can hike along the beach or one of a dozen different hiking paths. The state park is absolutely beautiful and clearly very well taken care of. I can't wait to go back and spend the entire day laying on the beach, taking a swim in the ocean, and maybe even fit in a good hike.